I tried, I did I did; but I failed. Of course I have excuses; valid ones at that. I had to prepare for our very first six monthly review last – which I presented this week. I went really well and I got a complement from one of the pathologists.
An of course we are moving into our new house on Monday. Some packing had to be done. I’m typing this from my as-yet-not-packed PC cause it is an essential; right up there on the last-weekend-in-old-house-list with 4 plates, 4 cups, 4 sporks and a list of takeout numbers. No ways am I cooking as well as packing.

I saw this tutorial in a beading magazine; they used gogga-ma beads and Pandora beads. I simply fell in love with these sugar spoons! I haven’t seen anything like it in shops or at markets, and I knew ICTMT (I Can Totally Make That).

Last week the ANCYL said it would lay a complaint of fraud against Twitter users purporting to be Malema, and warned that if site administrators did not act swiftly to muzzle them it would move to have Twitter shut down.

I still laugh every time I read that. Then I just shake my head. His public outbursts are cringe worthy to say the least. He borders (and crosses) on hate speech. He is an embarrassment not only to ANCYL, but to the whole country. And his superiors do NOTHING to reprimand his actions. He is not a dog, so ignoring bad behaviour isn’t going to make it go away. Taking away his toys will. Yes, we poke fun and laugh at his antics, but beware the next public election. Else it’s JZ all over again.

The league’s derision did nothing to deter the impersonators, and now Twitter users have decided to pay tribute to Malema in their own way: by changing their profile pictures to images of the firebrand leader.

Did I mention that we’re potty training now? For real. She wears knickers at the day mom with no accidents! At home it’s still a bit shaky though. Tonight she wet her pants twice and had a more solid accident as well… While there was a house showing – mind you, I have very short notice on the house showing; not that it would have prevented the little slip-ups, but I then I probably wouldn’t have been scurrying about tidying up.

While on the subject of Lili getting to be such a Big Girl, she baked some cookies yesterday at the day mom’s! Bev rolled the dough, but Amelia chose which cutters she wanted to use and cut the cookies out herself. Then she chose the decorations and Bev lent a hand, making sure the sprinkles landed on the cookies. Poor nunu had to wait almost 2 hours before Daddy came home to show him her cookies – and THEN she scoffed them.

And the final milestone that has me in tears tonight: she managed to put her sandals on by herself. You know the tricky ones with the thong through the toes and a little strap around the back to keep the foot in and a lot of Velcro? She took them off and put them back on in one sitting. *sniff* Baby is growing up.

Also adding the Ultimate To-Read List challenge! – No page link yet, cause I first have to make my list. See I have to choose 25 different members of South African Book Lovers Book club and then choose 1 book from each of their To-Read list.

Even if I don’t complete the challenges in the timeframes, it’ll be fun to find and read books just to tick off a specific goal. Oh, and 1 book may count for several challenge lists, but in the same list each book only counts once. For example, if I read Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief, then in the Cover challenge it can count as #16. Read a book with a lightning bolt on the cover AS well as #5. Read a book by an author whose name and surname starts with the same letter, in the Patchwork Challenge. But it CAN’T also be #27. Read 1 books with 2 elements on the front cover. E.g. The ocean and sky= water and air or #14. A book with one dominant colour on the front. Makes sense?

New Opening!

My name is Tracy (from Tracy’s Topics) I have always enjoyed crafting. But I really only started beading in March 2010. I had set up a goal (101 things in 1001 days) to learn a new craft – any craft. By chance I stumbled onto beading while browsing our local craft shop. I made a few things and eventually found a beginner book on beading. I made some gifts for friends and family {and for me too!}. Pretty soon people were placing orders. How awesome that I can get paid for a favourite hobby!

Tracy's Topics product tag

I started to create under the Tracy’s Topics name, but it didn’t have a nice ring to it. On a completely unrelated track I made some Lemonade syrup and was playing around in photoshop for a nice label.

Tracy's Homemade Lemonade product label

I made Tracy’s Homemade Lemonade, and simply fell in love with the label. It wasn’t orange *gasp*, it didn’t have polka dots, it had a lot of black, and my name was in pink. It was perfect.

I had my first Market Day selling under this new name on 6 November2010 and it went pretty darn well.

This site is so that I can sell to the rest of the South African public. Thank you for dropping by.